Driving test routes app - has anyone used? Worth getting?

Arunmor

Mildly_Miffed said:

If he can't drive on roads without knowing them first, is he ready to be let loose with a full licence?

The examiner tells him where to turn. What else does a competent driver need to know?

A really unhelpful post. They are learners, they learn to pass the test then they learn to drive.  They are not by a long shot competent drivers that takes a number of years.

johnnyboyz

Arunmor said:

Mildly_Miffed said:

If he can't drive on roads without knowing them first, is he ready to be let loose with a full licence?

The examiner tells him where to turn. What else does a competent driver need to know?

A really unhelpful post. They are learners, they learn to pass the test then they learn to drive.  They are not by a long shot competent drivers that takes a number of years.

Voice of reason.

johnnyboyz

Arunmor said:

I bought them for my daughter, the only problem was the test station had moved and all routes took me back to the old test station.   We got our money back.

Having said all that I thought they were invaluable to teach my daughter the rough routes and gain experience in the town should would sit her test.  She sat her test the day after covid restrictions were lifted and she had bare minimum lessons from her instructor but had the advantage of having driven since she was 11/12 years old so the basics were there.

How does it work?
Does it allow you to download the route to Google maps?

Mildly_Miffed

johnnyboyz said:

Mildly_Miffed said:

If he can't drive on roads without knowing them first, is he ready to be let loose with a full licence?

The examiner tells him where to turn. What else does a competent driver need to know?

I mean, why do you think instructors take learners around the known test routes in their area?

Because they have to take them somewhere...

Obviously they're not set in stone but being familiar with the general local area has to help.

Does it? Why?

Some people do indeed find it impossible to drive on roads they don't already know. Is that a marker of a competent driver?

Is driving in one bit of London suburbia so completely conceptually different from another that somebody perfectly capable of driving in Enfield can't possibly be expected to reach Brent Cross without a native guide?

How will your son cope, post-test, when he's in the car on his own and finds himself somewhere he's never been before?

I used to work with somebody who was so scared of roads they didn't know, that they resigned their job instead of moving with the office FOUR MILES AWAY. Last I heard, this person was talking about starting constructive dismissal proceedings, because they felt it so utterly unreasonable an expectation... Is that somebody you think fit to hold a driving licence?

Arunmor

johnnyboyz said:

Arunmor said:

I bought them for my daughter, the only problem was the test station had moved and all routes took me back to the old test station.   We got our money back.

Having said all that I thought they were invaluable to teach my daughter the rough routes and gain experience in the town should would sit her test.  She sat her test the day after covid restrictions were lifted and she had bare minimum lessons from her instructor but had the advantage of having driven since she was 11/12 years old so the basics were there.

How does it work?
Does it allow you to download the route to Google maps?

It came with it's own App called Test Routes which if I remember was at least very similar to Google maps.   I would double check if your test centre has moved in the last few years (0-10 to be safe) and if so speak to the company and check it is as up to date as possible.  It was still better than driving around aimlessly.

Goudy

sheramber said:

When I sat my test- many moons ago- my instructor had taken me round all the k own routes used.

on the day I was taken on  totally different route to any of the previous ones. 

I did pass. 

I taught my sister when she wanted to get a bike licence.
In between learning and test she moved to Bath for uni and booked a test at Bristol.

I went up there for a few days to run through some things and get an idea of where the test might take her.
We pounded (what we thought was) every street and road in and out and around the test centre.

We were both pretty confident that she wouldn't be heading into town as the test was booked at rush hours.

On the day she was examined by someone in a car rather than on a bike, they instructed she to turn left out the test centre and head into town in awful traffic.

The traffic was bumper to bumper but she shot off down the bus lane, as she had every right to.
The instructor couldn't even turn out of the side street onto the main road for 5 minutes.

When she got back we both had a chat while we waited for the examiner, it took him another 15 minutes. 
Turns out he kept asking her to stop and wait but the directions he was giving her were all double yellowed so she just carried on for miles until it was safe to stop.

He made a fly comment about how she left him stranded by using the bus lanes. My sister snapped back that he chose the route, surely he should have realised that she can use the bus lanes on a bike and you can't in a car at that time of day.

Turns out she was better at reading the roads than that moron of an examiner.

She passed, hardly surprising really as he couldn't have spotted any errors from 4 miles away!

MyRealNameToo

Mildly_Miffed said:

johnnyboyz said:

Mildly_Miffed said:

If he can't drive on roads without knowing them first, is he ready to be let loose with a full licence?

The examiner tells him where to turn. What else does a competent driver need to know?

I mean, why do you think instructors take learners around the known test routes in their area?

Because they have to take them somewhere...

Which really doesnt explain it given there are thousands of other routes and yet most instructors intentionally tries to take their students on the test routes. 

Clearly it's to help the learners and have them less nervous on the day given they are at least broadly familiar with most the roads the examiners take. Yes a driver has to be able to drive on unfamiliar roads but then a newly qualified driver is no way near at the height of competency and the pressure of someone sitting next to you observing your every move is an added pressure which most of us won't go through again (until at least your married and your wife is criticising your driving)

Personally, the last few lessons I had were driving the known routes, in practice a notable part of it went off route (dont think I made a mistake on the instructions - though that isnt a point of failure). I thought I'd failed fairly soon into the test  as I thought the road carried on straight but only noticed the giveaway lines at the last moment and realised the road bent to the right and the straight ahead was actually a turn (the giveaway lines were in a dip which couldn't see until closer. Think the fact thought I'd failed helped relieve the pressure and so was surprised at the end when told I'd passed. 

Goudy

If every learner close to their test started to drive and practise manoeuvres on noted "test routes", the instructors would just find other routes and places to examine a learner drivers skills.
Most instructors wouldn't take learners on those routes in the same hours examiners use them anyway.

They aren't going to queue up on a road to perform a turning in the road behind 3 or 4 learners practising, they'll just move on to other routes and roads.

I can understand it being a benefit knowing the rough layout around the test centre, the roads in and out of it for sure but there's another side to consider.

What if the examiner doesn't take a practised or familiar route?
That's likely to cause nervousness, perhaps even confusion and panic.

There's also the problem of over familiarity. You might be asked to perform a manoeuvre and you are sure no one ever crosses that side road or pulls out of that dead end road, until they do on the test.

Or say you practise a route in the evening but at the time of your test a local school is finishing. The familiar looks a whole lot different now.

I guess the best case would be to practise both the familiar and unfamiliar and try not to instil any expectations but deal with what's around you and what you are asked to do.